


Untitled

by morganoconner



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-18
Updated: 2009-04-18
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was in response to the Quick Fire - Flash in the Pan challenge over at the <a href="http://deancastiel.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://deancastiel.livejournal.com/"></a><b>deancastiel</b> community.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Untitled

**Author's Note:**

> This was in response to the Quick Fire - Flash in the Pan challenge over at the [](http://deancastiel.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://deancastiel.livejournal.com/)**deancastiel** community.

Dean punched the wall hard enough that his knuckles bled and pain shot down his arm. He barely noticed it over the rushing sound in his head. He spun around, glaring at the angel. “What the hell do you mean, Sam’s gone?”

“I’m sorry to have to bring you this news, Dean,” Castiel murmured. “Sam has gone to try and curry favor with Lilith. He hopes to make a deal with her.”

“My brother is not going to sell his damn soul!” Dean roared.

“His soul is not what he goes to offer her.” Castiel’s voice was whisper-quiet, and something about it made Dean’s stomach roll greasily.

“Cas, what the fuck are you talking about?” Dean asked.

Castiel’s expression was tortured. “He goes to offer the life of his brother, and with it, the breaking of the final seal.”

Dean sank down heavily to the floor, completely numb. “And what does he want in return?”

“A secured place at Lucifer’s side, when he rises.”

Dean covered his face with a trembling hand, trying to breathe around the rock that must have lodged itself in his lungs. “How the fuck did this happen?” he asked, but he didn’t expect an answer and Castiel didn’t offer one.

He did say this. “Dean…you are the only one who can stop him, now. You’re the only one who can get close enough.”

Dean took a breath, released it slowly, and raised his eyes to Castiel’s. “What do I have to do?”

***

Sam’s eyes, when Dean finally found him in a field just outside the town of Hope, Maine, swirled yellow. It was the final push Dean needed, and he knew what he had to do, even if it killed him.

Sam smirked. “You can’t stop me now, Dean. I’m too powerful for you. All you’re really doing is making it easier to hand you over to Lilith.”

“I’m sorry, Sammy,” Dean said, his voice cracking. “You have one chance. Walk away. Or I’m gonna have to end this.”

Sam’s smirk widened. “You’re too weak, Dean. Weak and broken from Hell.” He held a hand out, and the force of the attack slammed into Dean, knocking the breath from him as he fell to his knees.

His eyes closed as he felt the pressure of the attack. His fists clenched, and he began to glow. Wings erupted from his back as he tapped into the grace, the grace that Castiel had sacrificed, becoming human to allow Dean the chance they needed. His eyes opened, and now they were fierce as he stood, no longer feeling the effects of Sam’s demonic powers.

The younger Winchester staggered back, his eyes widening. “No. No! That’s impossible!”

The light of the grace surrounded him, and Dean stepped toward his brother. “Not impossible, Sammy.” Another step forward, and now Sam shielded his eyes, biting back screams. The power of the grace intensified, and Dean reached forward, wrapping a hand around his brother’s throat.

Sam did scream now, screamed and thrashed and begged.

“I didn’t want to do this, Sammy. Damn it, you didn’t leave me a choice,” Dean said, and there was power in his voice, power that caused the younger brother to begin to weep. “You would have dealt the deathblow to humanity, and I can’t allow that. Family or not, this ends now.” He gave himself over to the grace, and the light of it swept the field, burning through the demon his brother had become.

***

He doesn’t know how long he’s lain there. He has buried the thing that used to be his brother, and he has yelled and screamed and cursed and spat obscenities at Heaven and Hell both, and he has collapsed into soul-wrenching sobs that leave him feeling broken.

But now, he simply lies, staring into the sun and wishing he could die. That is how Castiel finds him. The newly-made human’s coat flaps in the wind as he walks steadily across the field, pausing only to glance at the unmarked grave Dean has dug for his brother. A few more steps, and he is by his side, kneeling down, pressing a hand to his arm, to the mark burned into his flesh and soul. The gesture is familiar, comforting, but with the comfort comes more pain as well.

The ex-angel does not speak, only lifts Dean up and wraps his arms around him, soothing the hunter even as tears he thought were already spent track down his face and sobs shudder through him.

-  



End file.
